Two months ago, Hennadiy Korban, a millionaire businessman, fled to Israel to escape retribution for siding with opponents of Ukraine’s president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. After Mr. Yanukovych’s ouster, he flew home in triumph aboard a private plane to begin a new life — as a harried civil servant. Mr. Korban, 44, now works 14 hours a day in a drab Soviet-era office block here for a meager salary that he does not bother to take. Business, he said, was more enjoyable and far less stressful than trying to keep Ukraine together. But since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March, and with tens of thousands of Russian troops now massed on Ukraine’s border, to the east of this sprawling industrial city, men like Mr. Korban have become part of a frantic, all-hands-on-deck struggle against President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Unable to throw money at the many problems besieging Ukraine’s bitterly divided east, the fragile and nearly bankrupt government in Kiev, the capital, has instead thrown rich people into a drive to convince the country’s Russian-speaking regions that their future lies not with Russia, but with Ukraine. Mr. Korban’s boss is Ihor Kolomoysky, who was recently appointed governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region by officials in Kiev. Mr. Kolomoysky, a billionaire involved in banking, oil, metals and the media, ranks as the second- or third-wealthiest man in Ukraine, depending on who is counting. He said he has not counted his fortune himself, noting that “a real rich person is someone who does not know how much he has.” Another of Mr. Kolomoysky’s deputies is Boris Filatov, Mr. Korban’s business partner in luxury shopping malls and other ventures. Sergei Taruta, a metals magnate worth billions of dollars, is now in charge of the neighboring eastern region of Donetsk. He is trying to reassert Ukrainian authority there after a short-lived pro-Russian putsch led by a self-declared “people’s governor” who is now in jail. Mr. Taruta, in an interview late last month, dismissed the attempt to seize power as “absurd theater,” suggesting that the script had been written by Moscow and performed by Russians masquerading as locals. On Sunday, however, pro-Russia activists staged a repeat performance, again seizing the...

Adolf Putin – Stop the War! Ecological Green Party like all the civil society of the Republic of Moldova oriented towards the European values of democracy expresses deep concern towards the latest developments in Ukraine. As well, the Ecological Green Party concerns about the negative consequences that will be generated at the regional and continental level, through the irresponsible continuation, by the authorities in Moscow today, of the same expansionist policies pursed by the tsarist and soviet imperialism. Basically, by the military involvement in the internal affairs of Ukraine, Russia has shown that it remains the last barbarian empire in a world of dialogue and its policy is based only on manipulating a population marked by frustrations of a chauvinist and imperialist ideology that has been cultivated in the period of several centuries. In this respect, EGP makes a serious warning about the typical fascist behavior adopted by the actual Kremlin authorities, led by Vladimir Putin, the artisan of the recent Crimean diversions, clearly meant only to justify the aggression against a sovereign and independent state. The dramatic episode that is consumed now in Ukraine serves as a proof that the previous lessons of history have not be learned by the Kremlin, because Russian communism was not punished by the Nuremberg tribunal for the millions of innocent victims that it has made. It is appropriate to recall that in 1939, the fascist Germany applied the same tactic of occupying the own border post by the German soldiers, only they were dressed in Polish uniforms to justify aggression against Poland. Just like in Crimea today, the Russian soldiers without insignia occupied Parliament and the airport. More recently, 22 years ago, on March 2nd, 1992, Moldova along with several other former soviet republics was admitted in UNO. “Coincidentally” at the same time, Russia triggered the military aggression of the Moldova territorial disintegration by Transnistria War. Just as it has done now, initiating a new conflict when the Ukraine announced its European path continuation. What happened in Moldova in 1992 and in Georgia in 2008, what is happening now in Ukraine, represents the effect over decades of the Stalin designed policy, creating artificial pro- Russian States, by...

February 27 Russian-speaking armed people wearing masks and no identifiable marks on their uniforms took up positions around a coast guard base and two airports in the Crimean peninsula strategically located on the Black Sea. Earlier, unidentified armed people entered the Crimean parliament in the regional Crimean centre Simferopol by force on morning, and hoisted a Russian flag on the roof. The Crimean parliament later announced it would hold a referendum on expanding the region’s autonomy on 25 May. Ukraine’s new authority called the seizure of the buildings an invasion of the country by Russia. The foreign ministry protested that Russia had violated its airspace and broken the terms of the lease on its Black Sea navy base in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. 28 February Ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has held his first press-conference since leaving the country in the southern Russian city Rostov-on-Don. He said he was “not overthrown”, but was compelled to leave Ukraine after threats to his life. Mr Yanukovych also insisted that he is the legitimate president of Ukraine and would continue to fight for his country. The Ukrainian border guard service said that more than 10 Russian military helicopters flew from Russia into Ukrainian airspace over the Crimea region. Mobile, landline and Internet access has been cut off in parts of the Crimea region, according to a statement from Ukrtelecom, the Ukrainian National Telecommunications operator. 1 March Acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said the Ukrainian military would not be baited. He called on Russian president Vladimir Putin to “stop provocations.” The U.N. Security Council, including Russia, held private consultations on the crisis with no publicized result. Russia’s upper house of parliament has approved President Vladimir Putin’s request for Russian forces to be used in Ukraine. He had asked that Russian forces be used “until the normalisation of the political situation in the country”. Pro-Russian demonstrations raised the Russian flag Saturday over Kharkiv city hall after a demonstration turned violent. Russia supporters clashed with backers of the Ukrainian government who were guarding the building. Government supporters were left beaten and bloodied. Ukrainian and television news wires reported pro-Russians demonstrations in Donetsk and Odessa. Pro-Russian demonstrators removed the Ukrainian national...

Friends of the Earth Europe calls on the European Union to undertake all possible diplomatic steps to end the abhorrent violence witnessed in the streets of Kiev, Ukraine. Standing in solidarity with Friends of the Earth Ukraine/Zeleny Svit, we are deeply concerned for the safety of all citizens, and express our sympathies for the victims of brutality. Magda Stoczkiewicz, director of Friends of the Earth Europe said: “We stand in solidarity with our colleagues in the Ukraine, and condemn the violence. The Ukrainian government must bring an immediate end to brutality on Kiev’s streets, for the sake of its citizens, and democracy.” Friends of the Earth International is demanding that all charges against Friends of the Earth Ukraine member Vadim Shebanov, and other activists arrested and detained by the police during a peaceful protest in the city of Dnipropetrovsk on January 26, are dropped. Mr Shebanov, who is a well-known activist and former deputy of the Dnipropetrovsk regional council, was engaged in an effort to try and open negotiations between local authorities and protesters gathered in the city centre. ...

EU must act; Red Cross involvement key Following the escalation of violence in Ukraine, Greens/EFA co-president Rebecca Harms commented: “The EU must exert pressure on Kiev and Moscow equally. Europe is not powerless: EU governments must swiftly adopt targeted sanctions against those in the Ukrainian leadership, who are responsible for the escalation. Freezing their accounts is overdue. “The EU can also pressurise Russia through gas diplomacy, for example. There are alternatives to the planned South Stream pipeline, which would make Europe more dependent on Gazprom. This would force Putin to adjust relations with the EU. However, to do so, it is essential that Europe speaks with one voice. “The EU must try by all means to stop the violence in Ukraine. The European Parliament has decided to send a permanent observer mission to Ukraine and this should leave as soon as possible. The OSCE must also get involved. With doctors and hospitals being prevented from treating seriously injured demonstrators and injured persons abducted from hospitals, we also need a rapid deployment of the Red Cross in Kiev.” Green foreign and neighbourhood policy spokesperson Werner Schulz added: “The brutal crackdown by president Yanukovych must be stopped. Yanukovich has lost all legitimacy as president and the EU must immediately freeze the assets of the Yanukovych regime. The appalling statement by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, that the confrontations in Ukraine are the result of European politics, should be roundly condemned. It is president Putin and the Russian government that bear responsibility for provoking the crisis, with their aggressive attitude towards the agreement between the EU and Ukraine, and fueling it recent months.” ...